“What really seems irrelevant about singing competition now isn’t the song selection, the garishly lit set, or even the useless advice doled out by the judges. It’s the idea that a centralized medium like network television could guide anyone toward a successful career. Pop now still may have old-fashioned stars, from Beyonce to Adele; but they aren’t taking us into the future. Neither is Idol, with its focus on that fixed astral pattern. What feels new is the universe of rogue satellites orbiting that old home planet, gathering information, sending their own signals back.”

End Times For ‘Idol’: There Are No More Songs Left To Be Sung : The Record : NPR
Interesting but typically complex graphics from marketing types from the Forrester blog.  I used to bring in this artists (perhaps the same one - looks uncannily similar) to my meetings to do this kind of visualization.  Always got the same ‘wow’ from the audience.  Problem is, no one knew what to do with it afterwards, unless you were in the meeting. High-res

Interesting but typically complex graphics from marketing types from the Forrester blog.  I used to bring in this artists (perhaps the same one - looks uncannily similar) to my meetings to do this kind of visualization.  Always got the same ‘wow’ from the audience.  Problem is, no one knew what to do with it afterwards, unless you were in the meeting.

“Super Bowl advertising is effective but has become too expensive to justify the cost, Joel Ewanick, GM’s global marketing chief, said in an interview. Ads for next year’s National Football League championship game are up about 9%, selling for about $3.8 million for a 30-second spot, according to media buyers.”

GM Bows Out of Super Bowl - WSJ.com

staff:

Tumblr Insights: Election 2012 Report

With the U.S. presidential campaign already off to a roaring start, news from the Republican primary contests has been a major topic across Tumblr. As we near another crescendo in Florida, we were curious how the campaign—from the numerous debates and rallies, to election ads and gaffes—has played out so far in terms of the type and quantity of attention received by each candidate on Tumblr.

The first graph shows how frequently each candidate’s name appeared in posts. The second shows other tags most frequently associated with each candidate. We’re most impressed with the viral power of one creative concept blog: When Rick Perry’s Unpopular Opinions sprang up as a parody of one of Perry’s campaign videos, he easily became the most blogged candidate overnight.

Our Insights team will be bringing you more data as the campaigns progress!